Last week, we took a look at some of Black Library’s most compelling villains. But as much as we all love a villain, a morally complex anti-hero is usually even more fascinating. With this in mind, we scoured the archives and identified three excellent examples of Warhammer characters who tend to more or less do the right thing… in their own way.
Inquisitor Eisenhorn
It could be argued that a lot of Warhammer 40,000 heroes are actually anti-heroes – after all, the Imperium aren’t exactly good guys. But even within the defenders of humanity, there are some who embrace the bad in order to do good, and the best example is Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn.
Eisenhorn started out in Xenos as a hero – noble, upright, always doing the good thing. But a career spent fighting the worst of the worst took its toll, and by the end of Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn trilogy, he is very much an anti-hero.
Sure, Eisenhorn is still fighting to defend humanity from its many enemies, but it’s the methods that make the man – and in this case, binding daemons, using forbidden knowledge from Chaos-tainted books, and fighting against other servants of the Inquisition puts Eisenhorn squarely in the category of “questionable”.
His fellow Inquisitors agree, and by the time of The Magos, Pariah, and Penitent, Eisenhorn has been declared a heretic and is on the run, pursued by his old friend Ravenor – but do we love him any less? Nope.
Lurien Soultaker
The Idoneth Deepkin are a complex race. Cast out by their creator Teclis for being imperfect, they steal souls to sustain themselves in their undersea empires. Yet they are staunch defenders of Order, committed to battling Chaos wherever it rises. This essential dichotomy is personified in Lurien, the protagonist of The Court of the Blind King by David Guymer.
Lurien is treacherous, self-serving, scheming, and nothing he says can be trusted. Yet, despite this and his seemingly selfish goal to claim the Jade Throne of Briomdar for himself, he’s actually surprisingly relatable – even likeable. While he seeks the throne, he wants it so he can do good. He’s simply willing to do anything to get it. Even then, he doesn’t kill without remorse, and there are lines he won’t cross.
A complex, realistic character, Lurien is absolutely an anti-hero, one you’ll find yourself rooting for even as he does things that make you deeply uncomfortable. It’s all for a greater good, as you’ll discover in the paperback, ebook, and MP3 audiobook editions of The Court of the Blind King.
Maleneth Witchblade
Let’s be clear – Gotrek Gurnisson is a hero, as much as he’d deny it. He always does what’s right (albeit sometimes grudgingly), and his entire existence is based on atoning for the one time he did otherwise. His companion in the Mortal Realms, on the other hand… not so much.
Maleneth is an aelven assassin, an agent of the Order of Azyr. Noble-born, and trained by the Daughters of Khaine, she has a somewhat… unique moral compass. She’s definitely not evil – she opposes Chaos and Death and works for the betterment of the Mortal Realms. She’s just not too picky about who she stabs in the process. She’s noted – repeatedly – that she’d be happy to carve up Gotrek to get at the Fyreslayer rune branded into his flesh if she thought she had any chance of killing him before she ended up in chunks.
Across Realmslayer, Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World, The Bone Desert, and Ghoulslayer, Maleneth has proved a loyal-ish companion to the Slayer, and there are hints that maybe he’s even swaying her towards some kind of heroism. You can pre-order their latest adventure, Gitslayer, soon to see how that goes.
Who else from the worlds of Warhammer would you describe as an anti-hero? Let us know on the Black Library Facebook page.